Heterochromatica

1: Once Upon A Time

I hate heterochromatics. Absolutely despise them.
And yet I'm one of them.

It all started when I was 6 years old, taking full buckets of water from the village well. It wasn't easy work for a kid my age, but it kept me fed. My parents supplied food to the royal family, the Todorokis, telling me that 'one day I'd be able to serve in the castle'. The thought of being in the presence of real royalty sounded too good to be true.
Unfortunately for me, it was.
I dragged the buckets along the cobblestone road, the water sloshing around and occasionally spilling over the edges. I hummed a sweet melody as my little house came into view, growing larger and larger with each weighted step I took.
"Mama! Papa! I'm home!" I called and walked through the ajar door. Why's it open? I saw some tall men standing in our big room. I hid around the corner to listen in.
"...food is spoiled. You expect the royal family to accept food with crickets hopping out of it?"
Whoops.
I had forgotten I left my cricket nest in our last batch of potatoes.
They won't be happy.
"We're so sorry. We'll do anything, just don't take away our gold, please!" I heard my mother beg.
"Your gold was gifted to you by the king. You think we would allow you to keep it if you can't keep up your end of the bargain?"
I took a deep breath and stepped into view. "I put the crickets there. As a gift! Good source of protein." I grinned and flexed my biceps. Everyone turned to stare at me, my parents waving their hands around frantically. I smiled and waved back.
"So... you mean to tell me... our kitchens were almost flooded with insects purposefully?" They stepped closer to me and I nodded. One of the men raised his hand high in the air. I reached up to high five him, but he missed.
I yelped and clutched my cheek, frowning. "You missed." I pouted.
The men grabbed our sack of gold, despite the desperate cries from my parents, and walked out the front door.
"You... useless girl, you cost us our jobs. You expect us to feed you and give you shelter if all you ever do is make our lives hell?!" My father hissed. I stepped back, frowning a lot. "Their majesties need protein. Besides, we have potatoes! We don't need gold to buy food!" I said, still holding my cheek.
"Stupid thing, you want to live off of dirty potatoes? Go ahead! See how long you survive!" My mother yelled and punched my eye. I fell back, not crying but feeling tears run down my left cheek. I raised my hand to wipe them, but saw only red. What...?
I screamed and scrambled away, trying to escape from this nightmare. The blood kept running down my face, dripping onto my dirty yellow shirt, which was white long ago. Am I going to die?

...and that's why I hate heterochromatics. That was nine years ago. My bloody eye, once all the blood washed away, turned completely black, with only a few splatters of red spread across it. No trace of (e/c), like my other. Whenever I'd pass a market selling mirrors, or step into the village chapel and see my reflection in the stained glass windows, I was reminded of my mistakes. Simple mistakes a child would make, only she was severely punished for her blunder. I hated my parents, I hated the crownsguard, I hated myself, and I hated anyone whose eyes reminded me of myself, my parents and the crownsguard.

I ran through the enchanted wood, grinning with delight. Early evenings were always my favourite time of day. I could find the little wood fairies, and watch their magnificent displays of sparkles and magic. I could climb to the tops of the trees and feel the cool breeze hit my skin as I watched the sun set, making way for the moon. But best of all, I didn't have to worry about bumping into other people.
My legs didn't grow tired, though I must have been running a mile or so, at least.
I heard some branches snapping and didn't stop, but turned my head towards the sound. My foot was caught under a tree root and I tripped, amusedly watching the mossy floor grow increasingly closer to my face. Hello, broken nose.

Broken nose? Hello?

I felt something soft on my stomach, and raised an eyebrow as the ground didn't get any closer to my face. "The hell..." I stood up and turned around, mere centimetres away from a man's face.
His hair was parted in the middle almost perfectly, only not how you'd think. One side was red and the other, white. He had a long fringe which wasn't parted in the middle, but stayed in the middle. He had a scar over his left eye. His lips were downturned in a frown and his brows were furrowed. But his eyes...
His eyes were sparkling, they were majestic, they were...
Heterochromatic.

Our noses touched, so I backed away and groaned in annoyance. "Oh my god, I was just getting to the good part! I don't need some idiot Prince Charming to come to my... oh wait." I looked down at his lavish attire. "You are a prince."
He nodded. "Is that a problem?"
"Well yeah, not only does this guy invade my privacy, which I only get once a day, but he also decides that he needs to 'save' me, plus he's a prince, but worst of all...!" I stopped myself as I looked into his eyes. Why...?
"What's wrong with you?" I nearly yelled, surprising him so much that he took a step back. "What do you mean, what's wrong with me...?"
"I mean, why are your eyes so beautiful?!" I slapped a hand over my mouth. That was meant to be, 'why are your stupid heterochromatic dumb eyes not pissing me off to the brink of insanity?'!
"...What do you mean by that...?" He frowned and I growled.
"Just... I... never mind!" I raised my hands in the air in annoyance.
"Do you mean to say we have similar eyes?" He asked.
"No. But you're not wrong." I crossed my arms over my chest defiantly.
"Your eyes... they're not naturally different colours, are they?" He raised a hand to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear, but I slapped it away. "No, they're not! And don't touch my face!"
"What happened?" He asked and I frowned at him. "If you don't mind me asking."
"My mother punched me when I was a little kid." I said nonchalantly, rolling my eyes.
"And I don't suppose your scar is natural?"
"What's a natural scar?" He raised his eyebrow.
"A birthmark, dummy." I replied and he just stared at me. "Well?" Not that I'm particularly interested, but what the hell.
"It's... a touchy subject." He replied, making me scoff.
"Mhm, so I told you about my childhood trauma for nothing." He looked down at the ground apologetically. "You wanna know why my mother gave me this black eye? Your crownsguard came and decided that we couldn't get gold just because there were a few crickets in one bag." He looked back up at me with wide eyes.
"That was you..?" I nodded my head. "I remember that. That wasn't just a few crickets. More like hundreds! It drove my father mad when he saw insects hopping out of the eternally sanitary kitchen...!" I chuckled a little but frowned again. "So why are you still here? Didn't I tell you this is my forest?"
"Do you own it?"
"No, but it's mine."
"How?"
"Because I said so."
"That's a little rude."
"You're a little rude for invading my forest."
"And we're back at the beginning."
"Why are you here in the first place?"
He looked down and sighed. "I'm running away."
"Ooh, my interest is peaked! From what?" I jumped around, giddy with excitement.
"From... everything. My father, my duties, my crown..."
"Why the hell would you want to do that?" I scoffed.
"You don't understand what it's like! The hate, the secrets, the corruption... all I want is to be away from it all, or at least be there and not even be able to make my father's ego inflate even further."
"At least you've got a roof over your head, a real fancy one too, three good meals a day, a comfy bed, servants to do your housework. I don't know, sounds pretty pleasant to me. I would love to live there." I smiled off into the distance, but when I looked back, the prince was grinning. "What are you smiling like that for?"
"You know, my father would hate it if I brought back a dirty commoner like you home." He chuckled as the colour drained from my face. "No, no, no! I'd never do that! How stupid do you think I am? Jumping right into the reaper's arms, that is! Absolute poppycock! Hey, I used a fancy word- but no!"
"Come on, you said it yourself, you'd love to live there. If I claim I've found the love of my life and I want to marry her once I'm of age, they'll have no choice but to tend to you." I paused for a second.
"Will they feed me (f/f) and serve me (f/d)?" I scratched my chin.
"Yeah, if you asked for it."
"And you realise if you do this, we have to marry each other?"
"Well, it doesn't look like any man will want to marry you, and for me, well, it's better than marrying some conceited princess from another kingdom. Win-win."
"Of course there's someone who will want to marry me!" I slapped his arm and he stared at me in shock. "I'm just not interested in marrying anybody. People are assholes."
"Well, you'll need to learn how to act, if that's the case."
"You're on."

A/n: welcome to my new book! While you're waiting for my updates, you can go and read Cold As Ice, if you'd like. My other Todoroki x reader. I hope you'll like this book! (Y/n)'s pretty cool.
~Naja-chan ❤️

Word count: 1724